How to Charge for Shipping Computer Products

When it comes to drop shipping you won’t have to worry about shipping and handling products. The distributors will take care of the shipping and handling for you. After the customer orders the product from your website, then you can proceed to contact and order the product from the distributor by phone or from the distributors’ web site, (whichever way is easier and more convenient for you).

Once you enter the customers “ship to” information on the distributors’ website (or by phone) then you will receive your total cost with shipping included. Then the distributor will ship the product to your customers’ location that same day.

And due to the high frequency of shipping activity produced on a day to day basis, most major distributors have fleets of UPS and FedEx shipping trucks parked at each warehouse location waiting to be loaded and sent on their way. And as a result, distributors are able to receive the lowest shipping rates available. ​

And since distributors receive low shipping rates then you too are able to be offered the lowest shipping rates from distributors as well. Furthermore, when shipping to customers from distribution centers closest to the customers’ location, your shipping costs are reduced even more. Yet your customers will pay the average cost on shipping allowing you to make a profit on shipping costs as well.

For example, if your shipping rate for 2 day shipping runs around $16 to $19, then the distributors may charge you $11 to $14 for that same 2 day shipping service allowing you to make a few extra dollars per sale. And every shipping dollar saved helps to increase profits.​

How to charge for shipping:

Your shopping cart system can add the shipping charges to the order according to the dimensions and the weight of the package and the distance from the sender to the receiver’s location as well.

You can use this method while using your home office or business location as the main sending point. Shipping cost will be calculated by the shopping cart program based upon the distance from the sending point (your location), to the receiver based upon an average or specific weight and/or the average or specific dimensions of the package. However, in reality, when dealing with multiple distributors spread out throughout the country with multiple shipping locations, it is impossible to calculate the true and exact shipping rate for every product on every order.

Therefore, the easiest way to charge for shipping would be to charge a flat shipping rate based upon the size and weight of the package. Furthermore, you might have to create several average shipping rates for next day and 2 day shipping services according to the category of the products.​

For example, you can charge $20 ($19.97) for 2 Day shipping on medium sized packages such as laptops, and charge $12 (11.97) for 2 Day shipping on small sized product packages such as accessories for laptops.

You can obtain an average shipping rate on products by visiting the distributors’ website and comparing the shipping rates on different sized packages when shipped from one end of the country to the other. And this is what most resellers do when utilizing drop-shipping services with multiple distributors on a day by day basis.

They figure out a safe and flat shipping rate and add those shipping rates to their shopping carts according to the size and weight of the average packages for those product categories. And when your website is based upon a niche market then most of your packages will be the same weight and same size which makes it even easier for you to determine an average shipping rate to charge your customers.

The distributor will then add a packaging slip to the package describing the contents of the package only, without revealing any pricing information to the customer.

The customers’ true invoice will be the email they received when the product was ordered online from your shopping cart system.

Furthermore, the name on the package will show that it came from your company and not the distributor. This is known as drop-shipping. And charging for shipping becomes less complicated when charging a flat rate shipping charge.​